Why

Scientific American: Why Smart People Are Vulnerable to Putting Tribe Before Truth - Science literacy is important, but without the parallel trait of "science curiosity," it can lead us astray By Dan M. Kahan

But given what positions on climate change have now come to signify about one’s group allegiances, adopting the “wrong” position in interactions with her peers could rupture bonds on which she depends heavily for emotional and material well-being. Under these pathological conditions, she will predictably use her reasoning not to discern the truth but to form and persist in beliefs characteristic of her group, a tendency known as “identity-protective cognition.”